The Roads and Rails of Mercer County, WV /

CR 29 and WV 290

Highway	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)
CR 29 (current alignment)	E. Cumberland Rd.	US 52 (at former Kmart), Bluefield	US 52 & 460 east of Bluefield	2
WV 290	E. Cumberland Rd., Rock Crusher Hollow Rd.	US 52 (at Bland Rd.), Bluefield	I-77 near East River Mountain Tunnel	9
CR 29 (original alignment)	"	US 52 (at Bland Rd.), Bluefield	dead end	16

Overview

County Route 29 forms part of East Cumberland Road in Bluefield, the southwest-northeast thoroughfare that traverses the base of East River Mountain. In its present configuration, the numbered highway functions exclusively as a frontage road for a two-kilometre segment of US 460 Corridor Q.

Its current state is merely the last chapter in the tale of a road that's been written for the better part of 200 years. In its history as a state-maintained highway, Route 29 has been stretched out, truncated, widened, promoted to primary status, reverted to secondary status, paralleled, and replaced. Though only a small portion bears a distinctive number today, large portions of Route 29 and 290's historical course now serve as the present alignment for US 52 east of Bluefield.

History

Cumberland Road predates CR 29 by a literal century, and is referred to in Virginia General Assembly documents as early as 1834. Its ultimate source (or destination) was Cumberland Gap, a mountain pass located in Virginia's southwest extremity next to Kentucky and Tennessee.

Cumberland Road, as seen in a Civil War-era Virginia map. The portion that would ultimately become part of CR 27 is highlighted by the blue arrows. (J.T. Lloyd, 1862)

The road of the 1830s bore north of the East River roughly around today's US 52-US 460 intersection. By the end of the century, however, an extension to the road's trajectory in southwest Mercer County had been built, continuing in the same east-northeast direction through "Rock Crusher Hollow."

How far this extension extended differs from map to map, with the greatest extent shown on USGS topos of the early 20th century. On these, a primitive road literally runs off the edge of the map...as far east as Pigeon Creek, near Oakvale, to be precise!

(USGS, 1924)

CR 29 was commissioned in 1933, and routed upon this pre-existing infrastructure. In its original configuration, the highway covered the entire length of Cumberland Road from Bland Road (or possibly Jefferson Street) to a terminus almost as far east as Ingleside...a bit down from the extent alluded to in the USGS map:

(WVSRC, 1935)

By 1945 the eastern extremity of CR 29 had been pared back by 4 kilometres, with the remaining length abandoned. This coincides with where CR 290/1 ends today:

(WVSRC, 1945)

A heavily-trafficked portion between Bland Road and Grassy Branch Road became signed as US 21 Alt or Bypass by 1945.

In 1969, construction on the I-77 East River Mountain Tunnel commenced east of Bluefield. CR 29 interfaced with the freeway near the tunnel entrance...and to accommodate the anticipated influx of traffic, the entire length of the road between I-77 and US 460's forthcoming Corridor Q alignment was widened and upgraded to Appalachian Development Corridor standards:

"With a completion date set for late August of 1974, State Highway Department officials report that 'work is progressing at a rapid clip' on the new County [sic] Route 290, the Rock Crusher Hollow Road near Bluefield. The contract on the project was let to Vecellio and Grogan, Inc., of Beckley on Dec. 18, 1972, at $2,695,696.66. It involves the construction of a four-lane connector road which will link the new U.S. 460, Corridor 'Q' highway, with Interstate 77 near the entrance to the East River Mountain Tunnel. [...]

Roger Wood, public information officer for the SDH in Charleston, explained that the new Route 290, which will follow the approximate course of existing County Route 29, the Rock Crusher Hollow Road, will be completed 'some time earlier' than Corridor 'Q.' He said that the tunnel which will carry I-77 through East River Mountain will be open next year, however, and the necessity of rushing the connector road project was obvious. [...]

Spokesmen [sic] for the State Department of Highways said the actual construction of the new County Route 290 was launched in early January and the contract is presently four per cent complete. The contractor is building four 12-foot [3.7 m] travel lanes to be divided by a 25-foot [7.6 m] median. The road will extend 9,450 feet [2880 m] from a point near existing County Route 19/20 to the area of the East River Mountain Tunnel entrance."

—Bluefield Daily Telegraph, 1973-05-12

WV 290 cometh! Blink, and you'll miss it. (WVDH, 1978)

In 1975, CR 29 disappeared from the map altogether as the highway was promoted to primary status as WV 290...a road ten times greater than what had come before! The unimproved portion east of the tunnel entrance was renumbered CR 290/1, and bypassed stubs became 290/2 and 290/3.

Yet, WV 290 was incredibly short-lived. In 1980, the AASHTO consented to relocating US 52 through the East River Mountain tunnel...and "290" signs came down and "52" signs went up along the route. It may be that the WVDH had intended to put US 52 on 290's alignment all along, and "WV 290" per se had been nothing more than a placeholder designation to be used until the administrative hurdles had been cleared relating to US 52's realignment.

Since the western leg of WV 290 was paralleled by US 460 Corridor Q, WVDH elected to make a portion of this route a concurrency...leaving 2 kilometres of Cumberland Road without a primary highway designation. The solution was to reconstitute CR 29 as a county highway. Thus, the abbreviated segment of two-lane road from the Holiday Inn and 1990s Kmart entrance east to the Bluefield Gas offices reverted to the designation it had had for most of the five decades before.

Points of interest

All photos by the author, 2013 (except as otherwise noted):

A: By the mid twentieth century, East Cumberland Road had emerged as Bluefield's premiere strip of motels, restaurants, and other commercial development. Bluefield Plaza opened in 1969 as the first shopping centre within the city itself, and featured Kroger and W.T. Grant (later Kmart) as anchors. (Photo by the author, 2008.)

In 2012, Kroger unceremoniously closed its 43-year-old Bluefield store as part of a Wall Street-driven ploy to trim the company's store base and drive up volumes at remaining locations. The lease was promptly snapped up by K-VA-T (a.k.a. Food City), which already operated a store in the Bluefield area and did so simply to prevent another competitor from moving in. And such it remains today, as the city suffers...

There are a fair number of quick-service retaurants on East Cumberland Road that hail to the era of WV 290 or even earlier, including this mercifully-unremodelled Dairy Queen and an only slightly-touched Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe. The Dairy Queen is still open as of 2024 and still looks the part today, but the LJS has been demolished.

B: It's a bowling pin. And a bowling ball. As I was taking this picture from my car, someone shouted over to me from over by the building: "Like the sign?" "Yes!" I shouted back. "It's been there 50 years!" he replied with enthusiasm.

So there you go. Let's hope this particular landmark endures as it enters its next half-century!

Cumberland Heights Elementary School opened in 1955, and has been a landmark of south Bluefield for over 60 years. Unfortunately, its time is short: The school closed in 2020 in favour of a consolidated school outside the city limits; a symptom of the educational disinvestment on top of population loss that has permeated West Virginia.

C: It's another vintage sign! It also stands on a short stretch of road where East Cumberland Road and US 460 Corridor Q run parallel to each other, with one functioning as a frontage road for the other. The current incarnation of CR 29 terminates at this point, although its historical course continues east to the East River Mountain tunnel portal and beyond.

D: A rare picture of WV 290 taken during its fleeting five-year stint. Unfortunately no "290" signs are visible; nevertheless, the perspective still captures a scene that doesn't exist today: The original approach to the highway's junction with US 460, facing west. The intersection was reconstructed as a partial cloverleaf in 2000-03, leaving behind this section as an orphaned stub numbered CR 52/53. (Bluefield Daily Telegraph, 1978.)

Fractional spur roads

Surprisingly, only one spur road has ever existed with a "29/xx" designation, and it appears to have been commissioned after, rather than before, WV 290's tenure.

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
29/1	Horton Rd.	CR 29, Bluefield	dead end	insignificant

WV 290's spurs were commissioned in the 1970s in tandem with WV 290 itself. These consisted of CR 29's unimproved 3-km stub (CR 290/1), and four frontage roads serving houses and businesses otherwise bypassed by the highway.

Road	Names	Start	Terminus	Length (km)	Notes
290/1	Rock Crusher Hollow Rd., Cumberland Industrial Center Rd.	I-77 near East River Mountain Tunnel	dead end	3	Continuation of WV 290, also formerly part of CR 29.
290/2	Thompson Chapel Rd.	US 52 (former WV 290)	dead end	insignificant	Frontage road, part of which was formerly CR 29.
290/3	Chapelview Rd.	US 52 (former WV 290)	CR 38/1	insignificant	Frontage road, part of which was formerly CR 29.
290/4	Wild Turkey Rd.	US 52 (former WV 290)	dead end	insignificant
290/5	Dillow Rd.	US 52 (former WV 290)	dead end	insignificant

The Network [Back]

Mercer County